Distinguishing multiple roles of T cell and macrophage involvement in determining lymph node fates during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection
Fig 4
Evolution of immune cell population dynamics in activated and diseased cases within Multiple-LNs for 1000 virtual LTBI hosts.
Our model is calibrated to capture key dynamics of Mtb-specific T cells (A, C) and total T cells (B, D) within activated (A, B) and diseased (C, D) cases. Activated hosts have five LNs receiving Mtb activated APCs. Diseased hosts have five activated LNs receiving Mtb activated APCs and LN granulomas forming in LN #1 and #2. For diseased LNs, our model captures the dynamics of LN bacterial load (E) and macrophages (F). We simulated 1000 separate virtual hosts for each case, generating a distinct trajectory for each of their LNs based on their parameterization. Lines in each plot show cell populations from the indicated LN within one host. For LN bacterial load (E) and macrophages (F), lines are colored by bacterial load trajectory: growing large (purple lines), stabilization (teal lines), and sterilization (yellow lines). Flow cytometry data from individual NHP LNs taken at necropsy are represented by black dots from [13]. Note that lines are truncated on virtual host death (see Methods, Section 6).